Former Olympic 200m finalist and ex-Chelsea coach Ade Mafe has joined the coaching staff at Watford.

Mafe joined the Hornets earlier this week following the departure of sports scientist Matt Springham, who joined Brighton and Hove Albion, and the former sprinter helped the players warm-up ahead of today’s 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough.

Watford’s head coach Gianfranco Zola, who worked with Mafe at Chelsea, said: “I know him and he knows me. He knows what I am looking for and he is a big appointment for the club.

“It is on the fitness side because our fitness guy left and I do not think there is anybody better out there right now than Ade.”

Mafe was a 200m and 400m runner who finished eighth in the 1984 Olympic 200m final.

The 45-year-old won the gold medal at the 1989 European Indoor Championships and silver at the World Indoor Championships in 1985 and 1989 – all at 200m.

He became a personal fitness coach following his retirement and in 1996 joined Chelsea, where he spent more than a decade.

Mafe joined Millwall following his departure from Chelsea and then linked up with ex-Chelsea colleague Roberto Di Matteo at MK Dons and then West Bromwich Albion

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